What happens when you send 5000 people racing up a narrow trail? Answer: plenty of pushin’ and shovin’. When I first ran this race 3 years back, I fell victim to some ruthless pushing. I still sport war injuries from that race! A small scar on my right palm serves as a constant reminder of the ruthlessness of Care Action! Today, I was determined to keep my body safe and intact during the race. Therefore, I decided to wear my medieval body armor suit for this race. Here, take a look:

Perfect racing gear for a ruthless race

However, I realized that there was only one small problem with this gear — it makes running up Sharp Peak slightly difficult! But, not the one to be bogged down by such a small problem, I was instantly reminded of the Giorgio Armani in me and wore my very own trail-fighting designer wear.

Remember Natteri’s Anti-knee scratch protection (TM)?

I also wore my gym gloves to complete my Rambo-style outfit for this race. I was ready for any fight and even looking forward to one!

Picture this: 5000 people racing up a narrow trail. Plenty of pushing and shoving and jostling and falling. Add to it, bushwhacking, boulder hopping, bum sliding and reckless overtaking. Oh, did I mention pushing, shoving and jostling? Well, one kick ass, hardcore, trail running competition in Hong Kong brings all this action to the general public and that’s CARE ACTION! Now, please don’t interpret “care” as in people “caring” for each other. That ain’t it. This is “care” as in care-for-yourself-or-else-you’ll-be-shoved-off-the-trail kinda care! Seriously, this race isn’t for any shy trail runner. You’ve gotta be an expert at “classic” overtaking (read: running and grabbing the person ahead of you by their shoulder and moving them to one side of the trail before overtaking them). If you don’t do that, someone will do that to you. The Gandhian philosophy (“if you are slapped, kindly show them the other cheek”) will only leave you with two bruised cheeks on Care Action! So, don’t try that! Instead, shove and be shoved! That’s the real Care Action victory. Trust me – I am a shovin’ veteran. And, don’t complain! This is where the fun is! It’s Read more →

Last year some dude tripped me in the beginning and I was bleeding in the first 20 minutes or so. This year I wore gloves! Definitely helped! Not that I got tripped again but I did fall once (misjudged a jump) but the impact was much lesser as the gloves absorbed most of the impact! No abrasions.

Only trouble this year was a cold, a bad one. So, it was hard to keep regenerating energy. Body seemed to be a little sluggish.

I love this race because it bring together all the fit people of Hong Kong at a very cheap cost. HKD 200. The winners (top 300 I think) also have the opportunity to win a cool bag in addition to a designer tee shirt (ok, maybe not designer tee shirt but it’s still great!)

Now, the bad stuff. In the beginning, you’ll encounter VERY VERY VERY unruly people who push and shove to take the lead. It’s hard to overtake on many parts of the trail because it’s narrow.

The route is Pak Tam Chung to Sharp peak (little below the summit) then the peninsular, then the beaches, then Ham Tin, Sai Wan, the Pavilion and eventually back to Pak Tam Chung. The distance is about 30Km.

My target was to complete in 3 hrs 45 mins and I participated with much enthusiasm (coming from the Trailwalker a month back).

In the beginning, I fell victim to the unruliness and some SOB tripped me as he was shoving me to one corner to get past me. I tried recovering but could not do so and fell to the ground bleeding from my palm and a little from the knee. As I was falling, I fell on the dude in front of me and he fell as well! I was fearing being stampeded to death but my reflexes took over and I gathered myself in an instant and started the engines (figure of speech of course). I had to wash off the blood from my hands but didn’t have bottled water so I took to sucking water from the hydrapack and spitting it on my hands. Well, anyway, there was no way I was going to let this bother me and I wanted to find that SOB who tripped me so I accelerated. Alas! He disappeared into the crowd and now there were several dozen people running.

So, I gave up on the grudge and stuck to training protocol (for the first 20 mins!!) After that I had no choice but to accelerate wherever I could in order to get past people. I loved the control I had and started gaining speed. A lot of the time though, I found myself unable to overtake and achieve top speed.

Things went according to plan except for the unanticipated heat. I ran out of water and faced heat exhaustion after the beaches. Had to walk during several parts although protocol called for running.

Eventually, the beautiful cheer girls at the Pavilion and the prettier ones on the road to Pak Tam Chung brought out the reserve energy and I went full thrust to the finish.

Actual: 3 hrs 48 minutes
Position: 143 out of 3000 people (top 5%!)
Prizes: A bag, some “microfabric”, “multi-purpose” cloth?! and a medal and a tee shirt

Great event! Next year, have to watch for someone tripping me in the beginning.

Oh, here’s the map! I turned on the GPS a little before so the average speed and all that isn’t right.